Speaker Budish?
The Plain Dealer certainly seems to be happy with State Rep. Budish's recent finance numbers:
Budish, a Beachwood Democrat, said Wednesday that his 2007 report will show he raised about $500,000, roughly $460,000 during the last six months. Such an impressive fund-raising total should position the freshman lawmaker well among a handful of Democrats vying for the top spot in the 99-member chamber...
While Budish's financial muscle-flexing seems to give him the inside track on becoming the first House speaker in 70 years from the Cleveland area, he brushed off such talk Wednesday.
"I'm just focused on helping the Democrats take the majority in Novem ber," he said...
Other House Democrats are expected to show record fund-raising levels. Rep. Matt Szollosi, an Oregon Democrat, plans to report raising more than $300,000 in 2007. Rep. Ted Celeste, a Columbus-area Democrat and brother of former Gov. Dick Celeste, said he will show about $220,000, while Rep. Todd Book, a Portsmouth Democrat currently in the House Democratic leadership, said he has raised $97,000.
I'm starting to wonder if the Speaker's race really isn't between the Plain Dealer and the Columbus Dispatch. Both papers seem to be taking a surprisingly strong position for the respective Democratic candidates in their regions. One might even say these papers are taking improperly strong roles in campaigning, and cheering on, their respective home town hopes for the statehouse.
The Cleveland area sends its state tax money to Columbus and much of that money gets spent on Columbus while Cleveland's problems continue to be ignored. I believe the last year there was a Cleveland-area Speaker was 1938. Northeast Ohio is the biggest region in the state. The PD is simply voicing a sentiment widely held in Cleveland--that the state ignores it while things get worse; that only Columbus matters. The Dispatch is homering for even more power and influence for Columbus, because it wants to be bigger than the PD.